Published 7:00 pm, Friday, April 24, 2009

The end of an eight-year streak of district championships seemed incredibly probable twice on Saturday afternoon at Elkins High School.

The Lady Knights survived both instances and delivered title No. 9 on Chelsea Kovich’s two-run triple with two out in the home half of the 10th inning. Those two runs were the only ones Elkins scored in a 2-1 victory over visiting Austin that ended the regular season for both teams.

The last batted ball was a high fly into left-center field that drifted in the strong wind and fooled the Austin centerfielder as she turned the wrong way on contact. That took her out of the play, but left fielder Brittany Chilivetis made a near-heroic 30-yard run and had the ball in her glove before it fell out.

Kara Waukau scored from third. Amber Garza scored all the way from first. Garza had walked in the previous at-bat but took a too-close-for-comfort pitch with two strikes that the umpire ruled was too high.

The dramatic triumph seemed worthy of a big celebration, but save for the initial excitement of completed comeback the Lady Knights (16-1) were subdued. Coach James McClanahan said the fact they missed several chances to score the winning run in regulation was a bigger deal.

“There is a standard I think we should play to,” McLanahan said. “When we don’t play to that standard I’m not in a very good mood.”

No matter his feeling, the result is a tie atop the standings between Elkins and Clements. The teams will play one another at 3 p.m. Monday at Clements to determine the No. 1 seed for the playoffs.

Austin (11-6) could have forced a third-place tie with Travis (12-5) with a victory. Instead the Lady Bulldogs will be the No. 4 seed, and Travis will be the No. 3 seed. The UIL playoffs begin Friday.

McLanahan was unhappy with his team’s inability to score runs despite being in a great position to do so a handful of times in regulation. The Lady Knights got their leadoff batter on base six times in the first nine innings but never scored.

They had a runner thrown out at home twice and stranded a runner at third base four times. The best opportunity Elkins had came in the fifth when Kelsey Thornton led off with a walk then moved to second when Jena West’s sacrifice bunt attempt turned into a single.

Austin pitcher Morgan Hawkins struck out the next batter, but pitcher Nicole Gremillion reached on an error by the third baseman to load the bases. Hawkins induced a ground ball to third baseman Kristen Paige who threw home for the force out. Hawkins got out of the jam by striking out slugger Amber Garza.

Austin caught a break in the seventh inning after Hawkins threw a wild pitch with Thornton on third base after her leadoff double. The ball went to the backstop, but catcher Hannah Thompson retrieved it and threw to Hawkins at home in time to tag out Thornton.

“Give credit to Austin today. Their girl did a very good job pitching. We had way too many opportunities not to capitalize on some of them early. You can’t have runners on second and third with nobody out for multiple innings and not get a run somehow.”

Austin, who had a runner thrown out at home by Elkins right fielder Lori Ramagli in the third inning, finally broke through for the first run in the top of the 10th. Kristen Paige was placed on second to start the inning according to the international tiebreaker rule and moved to third on Siri Soth’s sacrifice bunt. Chilivetis responded with her fourth hit, this one an RBI single.

Kara Waukau started the home half of the 10th on second and moved to third on Gremillion’s sacrifice bunt. Hawkins got Stephanie Harris to fly out to centerfield, but Waukau was unable to tag up because she was off third base when the ball was caught.

Garza followed with a walk, and Kovich drove in the winning runs on the second pitch she saw.

“I was mad at myself because I got under (the pitch),” Kovich said. “People make mistakes. It went to the gap luckily and we got the runs. It was good that we scored at the end, but it’s always better to score at the beginning. We could have gone home already.”

It was a tough luck loss for Hawkins, who was dominant at times. She gave up seven hits and five walks but struck out 15. Seven of those strikeouts came against the top three batters in Elkins’ order. Combined they went 0-for-13 with one walk and one sacrifice.

With her team already headed to the playoffs Saturday’s game served only as a chance for coach Terry Reyna’s team to improve its seed. The Lady Bulldogs did not get what they wanted, but Reyna said she was happy with her players’ effort heading into the postseason.

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“Ten innings against Elkins, that’s a heckuva ball game,” Reyna said. “It seems the story of our season. We go into the end and we don’t come off with the win. Hitting has been an issue for us, but today we hit the ball. We got our bunts down. I’m proud of the team.”